My Recent Garage Refurb
Discussion
A few months ago I finally got around to the last big job on our house renovation project - the garage. Having been used as a workshop and general dumping ground for various items of furniture, building materials, DIY & garden tools and accumulated kids stuff for several years, I figured it needed a good clear out and tidy up as it looked a bit of an embarrassment compared to the rest of the house.
First job was to sort out the floor which was a complete mess, being a mix of old, flaky painted concrete, an inspection cover for the main drain coming out of the house and also an area of new concrete. The floor sloped quite heavily from front to back, was cracked in various places and generally rather un-even and rough. I read up a lot on PH on what my options were and decided to use some Plas Floor tiles for the area where the car would be parked and to paint the rest using Regal hi-build epoxy floor paint.
By far the worst job was trying to strip off as much of the old paint as possible. I tried every mechanical tool you can get from Screwfix - wire brush heads, preparation wheels, paint stripper heads etc. All of which created huge amounts of dust and seemed to self-destruct within a few minutes having removed very little actual paint. Paint stripper was next to useless as apparently all the chemicals that used to make this work are now banned under EU regulations… In the end, I ended up mechanically stripping what I could with whatever discs I had left and then blasting the entire floor with a pressure washer. I filled the cracks in as best I could with concrete repair and then painted over with a two-pack primer first and then two top coats. The floor tiles were a doddle to put down and, being nice and thin, there's very little difference in floor height between the tiled and painted areas.
I toyed with the idea of getting all the walls rendered as I was worried the mix of red brick, old and new breeze block and cement render would look a bit rubbish compared to nice new floor. Couldn’t really justify the extra cost and hassle though, so in the end I just left it as it was and applied a couple of coats of plain white masonry paint from Wickes.
I then fitted some reduced depth base units and some standard wall units from DIY kitchens along one side to use as storage. Given the sloping floor (and my desire to keep as much as possible off the ground), I didn't think the normal feet & plinth would work for the base units, so I decided I'd try to wall mount these. I re-enforced the void at the back of the base units by fixing a strip of timber in from each side at the top. This way, I could drill through from the inside and screw into rawl plugs in the wall without the fixings distorting the (relatively thin) back panel. I also fixed a large section of timber to the wall for the base of the units to sit on and added some heavy duty metal shelf brackets to provide additional support in the centres of each cabinet. Probably way over-engineered it, but as I wanted to use the units to store all my tools I figured it was worth the extra expense and effort.
All the un-used furniture was sold on either Gumtree and eBay and the garden tools and chemicals were moved into a new garden shed. I went through all my tools and had a fairly ruthless clear out to make sure I could fit everything into the new storage units. All the bikes, turbo trainer, track pump and bike stand were wall-mounted at the far end. I over-ordered on the floor tiles, so decided to extend the tiled area at the far end so the kids had somewhere to park their bikes.
Overall, pretty pleased with the result. The tiles can shift very slightly when the car gets driven into position, but soon level out again. Floor paint is holding up well so far but does show the dirt quite quickly, so if I was doing it again, I’d probably go with a darker colour.
Before...
After...
First job was to sort out the floor which was a complete mess, being a mix of old, flaky painted concrete, an inspection cover for the main drain coming out of the house and also an area of new concrete. The floor sloped quite heavily from front to back, was cracked in various places and generally rather un-even and rough. I read up a lot on PH on what my options were and decided to use some Plas Floor tiles for the area where the car would be parked and to paint the rest using Regal hi-build epoxy floor paint.
By far the worst job was trying to strip off as much of the old paint as possible. I tried every mechanical tool you can get from Screwfix - wire brush heads, preparation wheels, paint stripper heads etc. All of which created huge amounts of dust and seemed to self-destruct within a few minutes having removed very little actual paint. Paint stripper was next to useless as apparently all the chemicals that used to make this work are now banned under EU regulations… In the end, I ended up mechanically stripping what I could with whatever discs I had left and then blasting the entire floor with a pressure washer. I filled the cracks in as best I could with concrete repair and then painted over with a two-pack primer first and then two top coats. The floor tiles were a doddle to put down and, being nice and thin, there's very little difference in floor height between the tiled and painted areas.
I toyed with the idea of getting all the walls rendered as I was worried the mix of red brick, old and new breeze block and cement render would look a bit rubbish compared to nice new floor. Couldn’t really justify the extra cost and hassle though, so in the end I just left it as it was and applied a couple of coats of plain white masonry paint from Wickes.
I then fitted some reduced depth base units and some standard wall units from DIY kitchens along one side to use as storage. Given the sloping floor (and my desire to keep as much as possible off the ground), I didn't think the normal feet & plinth would work for the base units, so I decided I'd try to wall mount these. I re-enforced the void at the back of the base units by fixing a strip of timber in from each side at the top. This way, I could drill through from the inside and screw into rawl plugs in the wall without the fixings distorting the (relatively thin) back panel. I also fixed a large section of timber to the wall for the base of the units to sit on and added some heavy duty metal shelf brackets to provide additional support in the centres of each cabinet. Probably way over-engineered it, but as I wanted to use the units to store all my tools I figured it was worth the extra expense and effort.
All the un-used furniture was sold on either Gumtree and eBay and the garden tools and chemicals were moved into a new garden shed. I went through all my tools and had a fairly ruthless clear out to make sure I could fit everything into the new storage units. All the bikes, turbo trainer, track pump and bike stand were wall-mounted at the far end. I over-ordered on the floor tiles, so decided to extend the tiled area at the far end so the kids had somewhere to park their bikes.
Overall, pretty pleased with the result. The tiles can shift very slightly when the car gets driven into position, but soon level out again. Floor paint is holding up well so far but does show the dirt quite quickly, so if I was doing it again, I’d probably go with a darker colour.
Before...
After...
Edited by blade runner on Wednesday 14th September 12:53
My garage looked great when i moved in 3 years ago - it was empty.
I promised myself that I'd clear it this summer but my dad moved house so I ended up storing stuff for him and had to collect a load of 'junk' of mine too.
That however has made me realise that I need to, have to sort the garage out. If nothing else it'll mean I can properly insulate the garage ceiling which might mean that our bedroom (being over the garage) doesn't get so flipping cold in the winter!
I promised myself that I'd clear it this summer but my dad moved house so I ended up storing stuff for him and had to collect a load of 'junk' of mine too.
That however has made me realise that I need to, have to sort the garage out. If nothing else it'll mean I can properly insulate the garage ceiling which might mean that our bedroom (being over the garage) doesn't get so flipping cold in the winter!
Craikeybaby said:
That is a good transformation! Which floor tiles did you go with?
After a bit of research I went with Plas Floor. I didn't want anything too thick and they were one of the cheapest options too.http://www.plasfloor.co.uk/
Edited by blade runner on Wednesday 14th September 13:51
blade runner said:
Craikeybaby said:
That is a good transformation! Which floor tiles did you go with?
After a bit of research I went with Plas Floor. I didn't want anything too thick and thet were one of the cheapest options too.http://www.plasfloor.co.uk/
Bike hangers are these...
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-wall-rack/
Garage was previously a single with a coal store at the far end and an alley between one side and the house. We knocked down the coal store internal wall and the side wall to get rid of the alley and make the garage as big as possible. Width-wise now it's about 1+1/2 size which is ideal to park one car and still enough space to have some storage and good access in and out.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-wall-rack/
Garage was previously a single with a coal store at the far end and an alley between one side and the house. We knocked down the coal store internal wall and the side wall to get rid of the alley and make the garage as big as possible. Width-wise now it's about 1+1/2 size which is ideal to park one car and still enough space to have some storage and good access in and out.
8-P said:
Yes a nice job and a nice car to fill it. Assuming those are kitchen units youve bought on the right? Very tidy.
Yes, they are just standard (reduced depth) 600mm wide kitchen units from DIY kitchens with the legs knocked off and wall mounted. Worktop is made from just a couple of 18mm white melamine faced boards, biscuit jointed in the centre. I was going to fit a 40mm kitchen worktop, but the 4m length versions were quite pricey and I didn't want to add too much extra weight.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff